I am not really DEEP in IF, but I am not new either. Both back when the originals were released and later with interpreters able to “revive” them.

Note that I have read the “getting started” guide in the forum, but I have some more bits to cover if you can help me.

I have to admit I am a fan of multi-engine interpreters. Last I remember was Gargoyle.
I am a fan of multi-engine interpreters for two reasons: (a) because really I am not “deep in IF” as I said above, so I cannot bother to look what belongs where, I just want to run it and (b) I am fan of such solutions in emulation generally (read MAME, SCUMMVM). Something modular, runs the most it can.
In an ideal world I would love a multi-engine interpreter that can also play Magnetic Scrolls (yes I know about Magnetic interpreter), to put all text (with optional pictorial assistance) adventuring in a single “home”.

Anyway back to the point of the post.

I see Gargoyle latest build is back in… 2011??? Although in GIT there are changes even 3 months ago. So CAN or CANNOT a fresh (and of course “current” in development) Gargoyle be compiled for Windows? If yes, can someone do it for me? (I have an dev environment, but I have left that field years ago, so I am not as comfortable any more)

Is there an alternative?

What is TADS? I have mostly found references towards people already familiar. So to a “stupid newbie”, what is TADS? (and I see Gargoyle also makes use of that) Are the engine libraries?

TADS is an engine for writing interactive fiction, like Inform, Hugo, or Alan. Before Inform 7, it was the most popular competitor to Inform.

These days, Inform games are playable online with an interpreter such as Quixe or Parchment, and I suspect the majority of players play this way. TADS 3.1 games also have web compatibility, and systems such as Twine or ChoiceScript are native to the web.

I’m on Windows, and I use Gargoyle 2010.1 for my interpreter when I’m not playing online.

When I try to download the Zip file, Windows says it contains a virus and prevents the download.
If this file is safe, would somebody please confirm it and I will change my security settings for this download.
thanks.

It scans and runs fine for me, but make sure you’re actually downloading the correct file (gargoyle_01-jun-2016_win32.zip) - file-sharing sites make it easy to click the wrong thing, especially if you don’t have an ad-blocker.

(Either way, it’s an archive of EXEs downloaded from a file-sharing site, so I could understand why Windows might be concerned depending on the security settings.)

When I try to download the Zip file, Windows says it contains a virus and prevents the download.
If this file is safe, would somebody please confirm it and I will change my security settings for this download.
thanks.

I was experiencing the same problem when I initially attempted to download the file from the link provided above. I then had a highly reputable member of the IF community inform me that the message I was receiving was a false-positive, essentially a virus free file that is being reported as malware. I turned off my security settings and downloaded the file, scanned it with Malwarebytes premium, and it reported the file as having 0 identified threats. I unzipped it onto my hard drive, this was about a month ago, and have had zero problems with the program. In fact, I have noticed it to be a huge improvement over the 2011 version that was previously mentioned.